Love Story
by LaughingDot
Summary: Set after the movie. Van comes for Hitomi before she makes a deadly decision. VH, oneshot


**Bg info**: This information is not in the story because I thought that it would take away from the plot. The story takes place a few years after the movie. Yukari and Hitomi are roommates.

**Warning:** The idea of suicide play a large fole in this story. If you find any offense to that, then i suggest that you do not read.

She was just waiting for the clock. It had to be at the right time, she would never be able to do it again. It couldn't be a sloppy job.

Hitomi was simply tired… of it all. The meds, the sessions, the constant worry that she put people through. She was a burden… but no more.

Her hope that she had come home with had faded as quickly as blue shoes in bleach. Holding onto it was useless. However there was that short period of time when she thought she was happy, but that was the past, which couldn't be relived.

Thinking about it, Hitomi could practically hear their words "Hitomi, we thought that you were ok." Well, she wasn't, and nobody could see that.

Upon looking at herself she realized that she had to change clothes. She would die elegantly, not a clumsy joke, like she had lived. The black turtleneck was her favorite, with the gray pleated skirt, and the black Mary janes. Oh black, what a color that isn't really a color.

Tonight, Hitomi would die.

This world was so peculiar to him. There were so many lights, and everything was hard and cold. Nothing natural. However, Van was determined, and so the details didn't matter. She needed him, and somehow he was there, but how he got there didn't matter either.

One way or another he found her window and was now sitting looking at her through the glass pane. She looked about the same, her hair was longer, her face slimmer. Still Hitomi. He didn't know exactly how old she was, because he didn't know how time worked in her world, but she was still young.

If he could see himself, he would know that he was rather handsome as well. He was rugged and war weathered, but his face was still youthful. His large deer eyes offset his masculine physique. His body was muscular but lean.

He watched her, averting his eyes momentarily when she changed her shirt. She was plotting something, something very important. Van didn't really know what it was, but he figured that it was the reason why he came. He watched her a little more.

For the life of her, Hitomi couldn't figure out why she felt this way. Dr. Matsumoto would probably say that he weaned her off of her drugs to soon, or gave her the wrong drugs altogether. Whatever reason it was, she couldn't take it anymore.

She left a note for Yukari, a nice one this time, long and explanatory, unlike her first suicide note. This time she wouldn't be a coward.

Sitting on her bed, her knees pulled up to her chin, she thought about it. It would be like clockwork. Although she had never been a perfectionist in her entire life, this one thing had to be exactly right.

The knife was in the drawer, not even two steps away. She knew it would hurt, but what are a few moments of pain compared with an entire lifetime of it?

Finally, when it was just right, she got up and moved toward the drawer.

Something compelled him to knock.

Hitomi jolted slightly when she heard the rapping on her window. One would think that she would be surprised to see a dark haired man sitting on the ledge of her window, but Hitomi had seen stranger things.

She walked over and let him in. He was handsome when she first met him; he's beautiful now. It wasn't just his face. There was a certain peace in his features that Hitomi only wished she could have. Even though securing peace was more difficult then Van had imagined, the outcome was worth it. He had a life now. He was… happy. That happiness showed.

What to say? That was a difficult question. "Hi" just didn't seem right. "How are you?" wasn't much better. So, Hitomi went and sat on her bed in silence.

Van spoke first. "What were you planning to do?" How did he know? Hitomi didn't know whether to dance around the question or just give a straight answer.

"I… I was going to kill myself." Straight answer.

Hitomi expected him to react a little more dramatically than he did. Everyone else did. They would all start wailing, "why, why?" and medicate her some more because they didn't know what else to do.

Van sat next to her. "I know how you feel." She looked at him. "It would have been easy, but I had reasons to live." A lengthy though not uncomfortable silence set in.

"How long will you stay?" she said.

"As long as you need me."

"I have and always will need you, but… you don't need me. That's probably why I haven't seen you. I'm not needed. Not on Gaia, not on Earth, not anywhere."

He leaned close to her. "Even though your presence isn't needed to save the world that doesn't mean that it isn't wanted." She looked at him and could have drowned in his maroon eyes.

He blushed when he realized their proximity. His shyness made her grin. It was the first time that she had felt something other than sadness in a long time.

"How are things on Gaia?"

"Different."

She could have listened to him forever. Lying there with her head on his chest, listening to his stories of a world that she once summed up to hallucinations. His existence made her experience real. Hitomi had been reaching for reality for what seem like a lifetime. If that moment there with Van gave her the slightest inclination as to what happiness was, then she wanted to be with him forever.

Yukari had seen a note like it before, just in a different time and place. It took her about a second to decide whether or note to run up the stairs or take the time to read the note.

She trampled up the stairs.

Upon opening the doors, she found her friend lying asleep on her bed with some guy who Yukari had never met. It wasn't an uncommon site; Hitomi had done it before. However, the situation was quite different.

Usually there would be various articles of clothing, which should be on their bodies, dispersed on the floor. But the only disguarded pieces of apparel were a pair of foreign boots and two Mary Janes.

Yukari decided that the situation was all right and closed the door.

In the morning, Hitomi and her male companion were gone. Yukari found another note, but this one dispelled her fears instead of fueling them. As unbelievable as Hitomi's words were, Yukari believed them. There would be a lot of explaining to do but she knew that Hitomi was safe, secure, and not alone.

The friends would see each other again, though briefly each time. One satisfied with the other's happiness.

Perhaps her family wouldn't understand, but she needed this. They would eventually figure it out, but they knew better than to look for her. She loved them, and they loved her. Thus they would accept it.

Hitomi felt the wind in her face, blowing her hair in all directions. It seemed as though the wind was blowing away all of her problems. She felt at peace with herself, for once in a long time. Van truly understood her and he truly loved her. This was what she had been wanting. Some place she could define as a home, safety, understanding and love. In Van she had all of those things. She loved him. Really loved him. Not that fake infatuation driven by physical attraction, but she loved him in the way that is so simple, so pure, and yet so passionate and indefinable. It was that deep affection for another person's soul. True love.

She could be happy that way. Truly loved, and truly loving.


End file.
